Harry Potter and the Gems of the Elements
by fifthflame
Summary: Harry's 6th year at Hogwarts. Filled with training, trials and true friendship. New powers, new mentors, old enemies. Please R&R...
1. Chapter 1

Hi everybody! This is my first EVER fic, so please be gentle, and give me lots of nice reviews. Flames are mean, evil and nasty, and will be used to incinerate the head of social development, along with my evil science teacher! I hope you enjoy, and a big thanks to my beta and sister, Aqua Mage. I couldn't have done it without her.

Beta's note: Yes he could, he's brill!

Authors note: Stop it, you're ruining the moment!

ENJOY!

Disclaimer: Anything you recognise is unlikely to be mine, unless I am recovering from amnesia and a gender change. I am not J.K Rowling. Don't sue me!

* * *

The cavern was massive. 

Huge boulders littered the floor as well as the rows of ledges. Alcoves covered the wall, some protected, some not, and here and there the occasional stairwell.

At a glance you might think it was deserted; if you didn't look carefully you might not see anyone, but if you looked closely you would see a man in a leather coat standing perfectly still, waiting.

It was soon apparent exactly what he was waiting for.

A spell shot out of nowhere. Without opening his eyes the man's hand shot out and seemingly caught the spell before calling out "you'll have to do better than that Harry!" The man hurled the spell in a completely different direction, blowing apart a boulder to reveal Harry Potter being hurled back by the force of the explosion.

Luckily for Harry his reflexes were superb, he had created a shimmering shield the second the spell hit the boulder.

As soon as he touched the ground he hurled himself behind a large cluster of boulders firing off 6 spells before he was hidden from view.

A huge shockwave absorbed the spells and pulverised the cluster of boulders Harry was hiding behind before striking the wall which shuddered under the impact. By the time the dust cleared Harry was gone.

5 more spells shot out of nowhere, all heading directly for the mysterious figure.

Quick as a flash the man had turned round and was holding what looked like a glowing marble in his hand.

The spells impacted an invisible shield, with every hit increasing the size and brightness of the energy marble.

The second all the spells had hit, the man hurled the energy sphere at a point just below the upper ledge, muttering "never have one above the other, it's just asking for trouble."

The spell impacted blowing away the upper ledge and showering the lower ledge with rubble.

A faint "damn," and an "oh dear," could be heard before the lower ledge was completely buried in debris.

A faint muttering could be heard as the man whirled round to see a mystical symbol flying in his direction.

He made a quick hand gesture before the symbol wrapped itself around him. It then compressed into a glowing thread that shot itself at a nearby boulder burrowing right through it and out of sight.

A quick gasp was audible and the man muttered "keep moving, how many times?"

Before he could say anything else two beams of blinding light engulfed him, blasting him into the far wall. It appeared the fight was over.

It wasn't.

Slowly at first the light was being forced back. Incredibly the man was repelling it.

A shock wave flew down the length of the beams, absorbing them into itself and slamming into the two boys that had created them.

"A nice combo, but you should always have a shield up, don't you think Harry?"

With that a ripple emanated from the man like a pebble being dropped into water, but this destroyed everything it touched.

As a boulder blew apart, a very injured and exhausted looking Harry Potter was picked up by the force of the spell and slammed into the wall creating a new alcove and burying Harry in rubble.

"Overall a good performance but there are some distinct areas we can work on. Trailcus termenotous."

With those words the chamber began to disintegrate. When it had completely disappeared, the only things left were six unconscious teenagers and a calm looking man in a silver and black leather coat walking towards Madam Pomfrey. The Hogwarts school nurse, was ,in a somewhat less than discrete manner, muttering something along the lines of "outrageous, totally out of control, they're only teenagers, being battered every day in the name of training, if he-who-must-not-be-named turned up now, Oh there wouldn't even be a fight! If this is defending them I'd hate to see what's attacking them, outrageous, if I had my way I'd put him in a coma, permanently!"

Still muttering, she levitated the unconscious teenagers onto stretchers that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere and started walking with them towards the exit.

The second Madam Pomfrey cleared the doorway Remus Lupin ambushed her "what happened, are they going to be alright, who did it I'll kill them!"

"There going to be fine, don't worry,"

Before she could say anything else Arthur Weasley ran up to her and said something similar to what Remus had said just a moment ago. This time she was cut off by Albus Dumbledore saying quite plainly "they will be fine gentlemen, I suggest you allow Madam Pomfrey to attend to her patients - this way you will soon see that they are indeed quite alright. I believe the one responsible for there, ahem, current predicament is Stryker here, but I think that you will also find he is the one responsible for their lasting so long."

At this all heads turned to the mysterious figure walking silently behind them. Both Arthur and Remus opened their mouths to say something like "how dare you harm them" and "if I ever get my hands on you I'll…" but they were both beaten by Mad Eye Moody, who had also joined the ever expanding crowd.

"Best way to learn, they won't make the same mistake next time, is what I always say…"

"…Constant Vigilance" interjected Tonks who had also joined the group.

"Exactly Tonks, glad you're learning, that was the best bit of training I've ever seen, I've got a special group of aurors that I have to train to be able to beat ten of the best death eaters; you should come down sometime give 'em a few lessons in team work, with a wand obviously, to keep it fair you know."

"Constant Vigilance" cut in Kingsley Shacklebolt, who had also joined the group.

"Precisely, so what do you say…hmm…Stryker, isn't it?"

"I'd love to," answered Stryker.

"This doesn't resolve the matter - you still can't go around blasting kids" Arthur brought the group back to the original topic.

"Teenagers" corrected Stryker.

"That's hardly any better; you just can't do it – it's wrong." Complained Arthur.

"Which would you prefer, me prepare them by rigorously testing them in a controlled environment or when they get into trouble again have a death eater kill them?" countered Stryker.

"How can you be sure that they won't go looking for trouble when they think they are prepared?" replied Remus.

"If they did that, Voldemort would be the least of their worries, and anyway Harry knows now what could happen, he won't do something like that again. Trust me!" finished Stryker in a way that left no room for argument.

"Do you think I would look good in a coat like that" enquired Dumbledore looking thoughtfully at Stryker's back.

* * *

Hope you enjoyed, next chapter will be up soon, please REVIEW! Another big thanks to my beta! 

Authors note: I re uploaded this chapter to include several missed full stops (periods for my US readers).


	2. Chapter 2

Hello everybody, next chapter is up! Thanks to my one reviewer, GCFan, you're the best!

Flames are the work of the Devil, and therefore will be used to help my least favourite teacher make his aqquaintance! Please leave me nice reviws if you wish to let him live! Mwahahahaha!

Thanks again to my brilliant beta Aqua Mage.

Disclaimer: Anything you recognise is unlikely to be mine, unless I am recovering from amnesia and a gender change. I am not J.K Rowling. Don't sue me!

* * *

It was a dark and gloomy evening at number 4 Privet Drive and 3 of the house's inhabitants were fast asleep. One however was very much awake.

Harry Potter was an unusual boy to say the least; for one he was awake at 2 o'clock in the morning and, even more strangely, he hadn't noticed.

Although it is true that most people have at some point in their life, especially when they have suffered a loss as Harry had, stayed awake 'till 2 o'clock in the morning and not noticed, this was different.

This was not the first time Harry had stayed awake till 2 o'clock in the morning and not noticed; in fact he was making a habit of it.

Night after night, staying awake and trying to imagine that Sirius had not fallen through the veil at the Department of Mysteries just months ago.

Trying to imagine that it had not been _his_ stupidity that had called Sirius to his death.

Trying to forget that if he had listened to Hermione, his godfather might still be alive.

Of course, everyone he knew, and a few people that he didn't, had been writing non-stop telling him it wasn't his fault; that Voldemort had tricked hundreds of wizards in that way; that Sirius would be glad to have gone out fighting.

None of it had worked, but it was nice of them to try.

This seemed to have got through to Harry's best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, so instead of telling him it wasn't his fault they were distracting him in ever more ingenious ways.

Hermione had made a habit of 'helping' Harry with his homework and 'encouraging' him to make lesson plans for the DA and revise new spells, topics and security.

This had been made significantly easier when she sent him a Flourish and Blots defence catalogue, 'all the defence you'll ever need and the odd bit you might not but it's best to be prepared'. Apparently they had been sent to all wizarding families and she had got a copy from Ron.

Harry had instantly bought every book in the catalogue and received a complementary book case and an appointment with a psychiatrist with his order.

He had been tempted to accept the psychiatrist appointment, but when he had thought about it he had realised that it would compromise Order security if he told him/her what was troubling him.

Ron had taken a different approach to distracting Harry. He would complain about his family and keep Harry up to date on all the Quidditch news with graphic descriptions of what was happening and some fairly ingenious use of swear words and curses that would have caused Hermione to not talk to him for at least a week.

This had been going on until Mrs Weasley had walked in while he was writing and had been censoring his letters ever since.

When Ron had informed Harry of this he couldn't stop laughing for several hours. When he had finally recovered, he received a letter from Hermione (who had heard about the incident from Fred and George) telling him it was very immature of him to encourage Ron like this, as he couldn't help himself and Harry should be more responsible.

This combination of events had kept him high for days. He had even written to the order to tell them he was OK, something he had been avoiding recently out of guilt; this had resulted in half the order apperating to the Dursly's front door to make sure he was actually alright and wasn't going mad.

But after these events Harry started to sink again in to the black hole of depression that he had become accustomed to, reading his new books over and over and over again, writing lesson plans half-heartedly and generally being miserable.

That's what he was doing now, reading and being miserable.

"Nice night you got going there kiddo," said a voice from the doorway.

Quick as a flash Harry jumped up whipping out his wand and pointing it at the stranger.

Evidently it wasn't quick enough as his wand flew from his hand in to the hand of his mysterious visitor.

"Nice wand you got there kiddo, holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple, isn't that right Harry?" for some reason the strangers words infuriated Harry; as he looked for an exit, his eyes fell upon his window.

It was open.

As fast as he could, not really knowing what he was doing, threw himself out the window.

Or he would have, had there not been an invisible wall there that threw him back onto his bed.

Harry looked at the man. There wasn't a wand in sight and he certainly hadn't moved.

He wondered where his own wand had got to and how this man had created a powerful magical wall without moving. He would have to ask Hermione about this.

"So, how did he create a magical barrier without a wand, how did he make my wand disappear and how did he get my wand to begin with. Questions, questions, questions. So many answers so little time." Mocked the man.

At that second a lightning bolt forked through the sky.

"Come with me and I'll answer all the questions that I possibly can. And don't worry; I'm with the order, I'm not a death eater." With that he threw Harry his wand.

Harry caught it, more out of reflex than anything else. The stranger had just produced Harry's wand out of thin air.

"Is that a yes?" said the voice from the doorway. "Cause if it is I can pack. It's quicker that way"

Not quite knowing why, Harry nodded his head.

"Excellent, well I'll pack the obvious stuff, you pack what I can't find or you don't want me to see."

With that the man snapped his fingers and everything that looked like Harry's disappeared. He snapped his fingers again and everything was neatly packed in Harry's trunk, including, to Harry's dismay, Hedwig and his new book shelf.

Then to his amazement Hedwig's cage opened and she flew out to perch on the windowsill. Then like magic - he had to remind himself that it probably was - the contents of the trunk minus the bookshelf and Hedwig's cage slid to the side and through the edge of the trunk. When that was gone the bookshelf with Hedwig's cage now perched on top, sunk in to the base of the trunk.

Harry rushed over to see what had happened but when he got there, all he could see was an empty trunk.

"I'll explain later, now hurry up I have other things to do you know."

Harry opened his mouth to protest but thought better of it. He settled for waiting and asking his questions when they got to wherever they were going.

His head snapped up as his trunk snapped closed. "Where are we going?" he asked.

"To Hogwarts" the man said, more to Hedwig than to Harry.

He grabbed Harry's arm and touched his trunk saying, "I'm Stryker by the way."

Lightning flashed and they were gone.

As you may have noticed, Harry potter was also a wizard.

-oo00O00oo-

It was a calm night at the Burrow. If you looked carefully you could see the air shimmering in a huge dome over the entire area. This was part of the new precautions the Minister for Magic had instated over all high ranking Ministry officials places of residence, (Arthur Weasley had been promoted to head of the Muggle Liaison office) as Ron said a desperate attempt to cover up his previous stupidity.

Hermione would normally disagree with Ron on occasions such as these, but there were exceptions. Ron had also pointed out that Cornelius Fudge - Minister for Magic had been added to her short list of people she would insult openly.

Mr & Mrs Weasley were not yet home, so Ron and Ginny were playing a casual game of Gobstones, while at the same time playing wizards chess and devouring a vast amount of Berti Bots Every Flavour Beans.

These teenage activates were cut short by a voice from the door "multi tasking, a good skill, I'm sure we will be able to expand on that."

Two wands were instantly pointed at the door. They continued to point at the door until they were in the hands of the mysterious figure.

Still figuring out what happened Ginny looked for a weapon, something to use. Her eyes fell across the Gobstone's set they had been using moments before.

She reached out for it but Ron beat her to it.

A dozen Gobstones, all spurting putrid green goo, flew at the man. They stopped about a foot away from him and fell to the ground.

It had supplied the distraction they needed. Grabbing a pinch of floo powder as they went; Ron and Ginny fled the room.

Climbing the stairs three at a time, they ran to Fred and Georges currently empty room. They, like Mr & Mrs Weasley, were at the order meeting.

Fred and George had recently persuaded Mr Weasley connect the fireplace in their room to the floo network, so that if they had a brilliant idea at home they could get themselves and their equipment to their new shop/ laboratory as quickly as possible.

It was also used as an emergency floo if the fireplace downstairs was blocked.

Hurtling into the room Ginny threw the powder into the fireplace yelling "number twelve Grimuald Place!"

Green flames roared, but Ginny never made it as the man from downstairs walked out of the fire; flicking his hand he sent her careering into Ron.

The figure loomed over the tangled teens and said "next time take 'all' the floo powder, but apart from that, good work!"

Confused, Ron and Ginny looked at each other then at the man standing over them.

"Don't worry" chuckled the man "if I was a death eater do you really think you would still be alive, let alone unharmed?"

"If you're coming, pack your stuff. If not, go downstairs and wait for your parents. The choice is yours!"

The man walked away and sat on one of the desk chairs.

It DIDN'T explode!

This, if nothing else, assured both Ron and Ginny that this man was seriously powerful. When either of them sat on the chair it had collapsed, set off alarm bells all over the house, turned them purple and made the walls fire targeting goo at them for hours.

This was especially terrible: Fred and George were the only ones that could get it off!

They made up their minds. They had to learn how to do that!

5 minutes later they were packed and ready to go.

"Just where are we going?" asked Ginny.

Pigwidgeon burst out of his cage as the man said, more to the owl than anybody else "to Hogwarts."

Lightning flashed and they were all gone.

-oo00O00oo-

Hermione was, as usual, reading.

Ron had once said that she would have read the school library and memorised it before they left at the end of their seventh year. Although she hadn't quite achieved that goal yet, she was certainly working her way towards it.

Her thoughts then went to Harry and she sighed. He had so much pain in his life. Sirius's death had almost pushed him off the edge.

She hoped her and Ron's support had helped; he definitely seemed happier after their letters, but maybe he was just putting on a brave face for them.

This made her think about the incident with Ron's immature letters; it had certainly seemed to make Harry happy, but she couldn't imagine why anybody would find such coarse language amusing…boys!

Her thoughts were interrupted by a noise downstairs.

Her mum and dad were out at a dentist's conference so it couldn't be them.

Picking up her wand she made her way downstairs, whoever it was, it was best to be prepared.

At the bottom of the stairs she waited, there it was again, the sound of someone sneaking about.

She hoped it was a thief like last week. She had assumed he was a death eater and had stunned him and tied him up before she realised it was a common criminal.

The obliviators had been called and the burglar put in prison with his memory of the incident erased.

She used the downstairs mirror to aim hoping that the spell would reflect off it and not smash it, ruining the element of surprise.

"stupefy," she whispered.

The spell bounced off the mirror and headed straight for the shadowed figure.

It seemed to slow down and curve towards her.

Quickly putting up a shield Hermione rushed in to the room the figure was in and muttered the most powerful spell she knew but had never tried. "macimeus devestatum"

The spell ripped from her wand like a bullet from a gun but with considerably more force!

It was aimed right at the shadowy man, and there was no known defence for this spell.

He was going down!

Then, in the mans hands was the last thing she expected, a staff.

The spell touched the tip and was absorbed.

Light flared for a second then died.

The next thing she new she was encased in a glowing sphere; her wand was gone and the mans staff was pointed directly at her.

Terror spread through her.

If Voldemort had discovered how to create staffs the whole world was in trouble, serious trouble!

The man walked towards her, as though he was still wary of her, even now.

He certainly didn't look like a death eater, but who could tell?

As he walked cautiously into the light her prison was creating, she at last saw his face.

"You!" she whispered.

* * *

Thanks for reading, please leave a nice review for me!


	3. Chapter 3

Hi everybody, it's me, back at it again! I'd like to say a huge thanks to my reviewers: ydole3343 (twice, thanks!), dennisinwr and Superlea, you're all great! Again a huge thanks to my beta Aqua Mage, hope you enjoy the chapter…

Flames are mean, cruel and evil and so will be used to incinerate my teachers of the same description! Please leave me nice reviews!

Disclaimer: Anything you recognise is unlikely to be mine, unless I am recovering from amnesia and a gender change. I am not J.K Rowling. Don't sue me!

* * *

Hermione was stunned!

She could not believe it was him. She had dreamed about him for years, always looking out for him, but she had never found him.

When she got her Hogwarts letter she was sure he would be there; he had to be one of the professors.

She had given up hope of ever seeing him again, never being able to thank him for what he did.

But he was here now.

"Thank you," said Hermione.

To an onlooker this may have seemed strange, thanking the person that had you in a glowing magical prison and who could kill you at a moments notice.

"You remember me?" asked the stranger with some degree of uncertainty "after all this time?"

"How could I forget you?" cried Hermione "you saved my life!"

With that the bubble burst and Hermione was free.

Uncertainly she looked at him. The man she had looked for most of her life, the man of her dreams, the man of her nightmares!

With a sob she remembered the day they first met, the day she almost died.

When she was very young, a few years after Voldemort was defeated, Hermione and her parents were out in a local park having a picnic, Mr & Mrs Granger were having a nap against a tree when it burst into flames.

Five death eaters were striding towards them wands raised. Five spells flew towards Hermione. Although she didn't know what these glowing flying things were she sensed they were dangerous.

They each impacted on her with great force catapulting her back and slamming her into a tree. This combination of things should have knocked her out at the very least but she wasn't harmed.

She got up and looked at the puzzled figures in front of her. They again fired off spells.

These did not reach her as they all pealed off in deferent directions and impacted with their creators.

To top it all off the death eaters were thrown back by some invisible force and landed loudly 50 feet away.

By this time Mr & Mrs Granger had woken up and were rushing towards Hermione screaming.

The death eaters had had enough so finished it with an Avada Kedavra each.

Or so they thought!

Lightning forked through the sky, five bolts intercepted the spells while another struck the ground and revealed a man in a leather coat striding towards the death eaters whirling a staff in his hands.

"Attacking children, and muggles asleep," spat the man "I didn't think even death eaters would cross that line"

He twirled his staff above his head then brought it slashing down to point at the five arrogant, evil wizards.

Lightning flashed and thunder crashed as a blast of pure magic pulsed from the glowing staff, engulfing the death eaters and blowing a crater in the ground.

When the flow of magic stopped the death eaters were gone and only a smoking crater was left to remember them by.

"Guess I was wrong."

The police said it had been a bomb, no casualties. The Ministry of Magic encouraged this as they were not quite sure what had happened either; they knew it had been magic that had caused it but nothing else.

Hermione's parents strangely forgot everything that had happened and point blank refused to believe what Hermione had said.

She soon realised that it was for the best, the truth would only complicate the matter.

The man took her and her parents home and comforted her for several hours. He told her that she should tell no one and that one day she would understand. He left her with his name only.

'Stryker'

When she went to Hogwarts she began to understand, just like he said she would.

Now he was back.

"I'm sorry, I didn't realise." His words brought her back to reality "but this isn't the time nor the place for this - I'm here to take you to Hogwarts."

"Why?" asked Hermione suspiciously. She would follow him to the ends of the earth but she wouldn't go without some of her questions being answered. "Why didn't one of the teachers come, why you and how do you know Dumbledore?"

"Training, because they don't know, it's a long story, I'll tell you later. Is that ok and can we go?" he answered then asked.

"I'll go pack my things" she said as she made her way upstairs.

Five minutes later she was packed and ready to go.

With one hand he touched her trunk with a finger on Crookshank's cage (not a wise thing to do but she didn't point it out) and held out his other hand to her.

"Wand" she said holding out her hand.

He grasped it. He was holding her wand even though his hand had been empty when she had held out hers.

Suspecting what would happen next, she closed her eyes just as her suspicions were confirmed and they disappeared in a bolt of lightning.

-oo00O00oo-

In the Gryffindor common room, Harry was fuming, as he generally did when he was left out of the loop, and this was a pretty big loop to be left out of. One that somehow involved him.

This made him again marvel at his stupidity. Why had he gone with the stranger?

Looking back he could not see any reason for him to trust the mysterious 'Stryker' person, he didn't even know him, yet here he was.

It had made him feel a lot better when Ron and Ginny had arrived and were thinking the same thing he was. Why had they gone with a man they didn't know?

They had just come to the conclusion that Hermione, Neville and Luna would most probably be joining them soon when a rather tearful and confused looking Hermione walked in.

They all rushed over to her side and asked questions like 'are you alright', 'what happened?' and 'I'll bloody kill 'im!' (that was Ron).

This turned out to be the wrong thing to do, as Hermione burst into tears and flung her arms around a rather bewildered Ron who awkwardly patted her on the back.

Amidst the tears they heard bits off what Hermione was saying …not that I'm not grateful…, …after all this time…, …why did he come back now… and …I must talk to him…

This was very confusing, so instead of trying to make sense of it all they resolved to ask her later and comfort her now.

When she had finally calmed down she looked at her friends concerned faces before hurrying up the girl's staircase calling out "I'll tell you later, I promise." Before she disappeared from sight.

More confused now than ever the friends looked at each other and sat down heavily in to the nearest armchairs, thoroughly exhausted by the whole affair, they waited for whoever was to be the next to arrive.

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Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease Review!


	4. Chapter 4

Hello all those of you who are still reading this! Sorry for the long wait. Thanks to: preston aka snoopy, dennisinwr and firebirdgs for the great reviews of the last chapter - you're the reason I'm writing this.

All flames will be used to char pixies (except Cornish ones) and other sweet and fluffy things. (Thanks to firebirdgs for use of your imagination!)

Disclaimer: Anything you recognise is unlikely to be mine, unless I am recovering from amnesia and a gender change. I am not J.K. Rowling. Don't sue me!

* * *

St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries was not a place most wanted to be in. It was clean and orderly but being there usually meant you had something - usually unpleasant but not always - wrong with you or else knew someone who did and were visiting them.

The latter was the case for Neville Longbottom. His parents were in a delusional state of insanity after being tortured extensively by a group of death eaters.

It is very depressing and a bit disturbing to visit parents who don't recognise you.

Neville was visiting with his grandmother. She had just gone to get a cup of tea when he heard Gilderoy Lockhart, who was in the same ward (for memory loss, like Neville's parents) call out "hello there, who are you, I suppose you want my autograph, everyone I meet does, so, who shall I write it out to then?"

This was a common occurrence nowadays as Lockhart was remembering his love of giving autographs and was now offering them to anything that moved; this included photographs and complete strangers.

Most people that could take one did and then went on their way, some laughed at him and others ignored him. This man however said "no thank you." Amazingly Lockhart shut up.

This made Neville interested; no one shut Lockhart up without an autograph (often two!).

Turning around he found a man in a leather coat standing over him.

"What do you want?" muttered a rather taken aback Neville.

The stranger seemed not to hear, saying "such a pity, so young."

He then said to Neville "I suppose you know what happened?" not giving him a chance to respond the stranger continued "have you ever heard of something called 'post traumatic stress disorder'?"

Neville shook his head

"No, well it's not surprising really. Post traumatic stress disorder is something people get if they have seen terrible things in war or suffered great pain, like your parents; now these are just examples but you get the picture."

Neville nodded, his mouth going dry.

The stranger continued "muggles have ways of dealing with this, their methods have nothing to do with magic so naturally no healer has ever even considered this option, most haven't even heard of PTSD and even those who have are of the opinion that if magic cant solve it, it can't be solved.

This opinion is shared by almost everyone in the magical world. Of course it is complete rubbish; magic can't solve everything.

If your parents had received the proper 'muggle' treatment they would have be fine. Now it is too late."

Neville was almost in tears. His parents could have been saved if wizards acknowledged muggle techniques and used them. The stranger again began to speak. Neville's face lifted; maybe his parents could be saved.

"The magic of the cruciatus curse causes the recipient continued pain after a certain time. Healers believe it is best to stop this pain straight away, no pain, no injury - means there's nothing wrong.

Doing this makes the patient recede into themselves to avoid future pain; they protect themselves from everything, including those who wish to help.

Now this can be treated in muggles, but wizards and witches create a magical barrier that stops anyone from getting to the real person who is buried deep in their subconscious."

Then that was it. His parents were gone forever.

"The only way to reach them now would be to contact them telepathically,"

Neville looked up.

"But only a close relative like a son or daughter could reach them without destroying their mind in the process."

Then it was hopeless, he could never learn something as complex as telepathy, it was supposed to be impossible.

"Come with me and I can teach you how," said Stryker

"But I could never learn something like that, I'm hopeless," stated Neville "I can't even fly a broom properly"

"The ability to do one form of magic does not affect the ability to do another," snapped Stryker "the way you are meant to do magic is different to the way everyone else does magic, you are more powerful than you know."

Walking to the door he called out "come with me to Hogwarts and I will help you the best that I can."

Neville walked over to the door, muttering "what about Gran?"

"She already knows" replied Stryker before they disappeared in a bolt of lightning.

"Are you sure you don't want an autograph?" smiled Gilderoy Lockhart as if no time had passed, and for him, it hadn't.

-oo00O00oo-

Luna Lovegood was currently lying in a ditch, under a bush, on the top of a hill in Sweden.

She had binoculars glued to her eyes, a quill in her right hand and a roll of parchment in her left (there was also a full bottle of ink balanced precariously in the crook of her arm) and a bored expression on her face.

Even the most enthusiastic crumple-horned snorkack spotter can lose interest after a few weeks of uneventful lying in a ditch.

Letting out a long yawn, she settled down into the most comfortable position possible while lying in a ditch and closed her eyes fully intending to nod off. She was however foiled in her plan when a strangers voice came from right next to her and said "so, you do know that the only way to see a crumple-horned snorkack, is to close your eyes, whistle 3 times and then open your mouth in a vacant way until they begin poking you to see what you are and whether you're interesting! You see I wasn't sure because most sightings are from people who fell asleep after drinking to much firewhisky."

Luna grasped her quill more tightly and readied her parchment, before closing her eyes again, whistling three times and opening her mouth in the most vacant way she could manage without seeing her reflection, and continued to wait.

Then the stranger spoke up again "very good, you're clearly an expert crumple-horned snorkack spotter except for one minor detail."

Luna opened her eyes, turning her head so that she was facing the voice (although she could only see a very nice tree a few hundred metres away) before it continued.

"They don't live in Sweden, only in the U.K."

Luna's face took on a look of disappointment before the stranger continued again.

"I happen to be going to Hogwarts, and there are plenty there, you could always hitch a ride."

Luna's face promptly became extremely excited and she quickly scribbled down a note to her father, explaining how to attract crumple-horned snorkacks, where they lived and that she was going to Hogwarts with a nice stranger. Running through the note in her head she nodded to herself in satisfaction, signed it with an elaborate flourish, rolled it up and put it in plain sight. She then capped her ink bottle and put her quill behind her ear, before grasping her trunk (which she had been lying on for improved elevation) and holding out her other hand.

Feeling a hand close around her own, she was blinded by a flash of light and was gone.

-oo00O00oo-

The Gryffindor common room was usually a warm and friendly place, full of people chatting and relaxing, doing homework and the occasional spell. In fact, it was quite unusual for it to be completely silent, especially when there were several Gryffindors in it as there were now.

Harry, Ron and Ginny were sitting together in a group of armchairs by the empty fireplace, exchanging the occasional glance and frequently looking towards the portrait hole and Neville, who was sitting right next to it.

Harry and Ron were actively avoiding looking at the staircase to the girl's dormitory, because Hermione was 'hiding' from them where they couldn't get to her.

This was the main reason that Ginny wasn't talking to the two boys - according to her, they were being 'insensitive' and Hermione was obviously 'upset'.

Ron had, during that conversation, said unnecessarily loudly that Hermione was making a fuss out of nothing and that she should tell them about it and get it over with.

This had caused Ginny to charm a nearby pillow to hit her brother repeatedly over the head, until it was incinerated by a combustion spell from Ron, which also hit a wall hanging next to the portrait hole, just as Neville stepped through.

The resulting awkward silence had not abated.

It was, however ended when Hermione ran down the girls staircase, Luna right behind her, and yelled "He's back!" she then bolted out through the portrait hole letting it swing shut behind her.

All heads in the room turned towards Luna who said, absent mindedly "I think she means that nice stranger that told me to tell you to meet him in the great hall. Hermione and he seem awfully friendly, she gave him quite a hug when we materialized, without the lightning leaving a hole in the ceiling, it's quite impressive really." These last few words fell on deaf ears as the rooms inhabitants scrambled out of the portrait hole like ants from a nest.

Luna looked around at the empty common room as the portrait hole slammed shut and let out a quiet "oh!" before scrambling out of the portrait hole herself and running full tilt towards the great hall, she hoped.

-oo00O00oo-

The Hogwarts great hall was a vast, open space most commonly used for meals, feasts, the occasional emergency and the odd ball. It was not, however, usually used as a meeting place for six teenagers and three adults.

But today was no ordinary day.

The meeting was to take place on a half moon shaped table, with six chairs on the curve and three on the straight part.

When all were reasonably settled, professor Dumbledore (seated on the far right)

stood up and addressed his students. "Good evening to you all, I trust you had a pleasant journey."

Ignoring the impatient, and in some cases furious, expressions facing him, he continued as though everyone had answered 'yes sir'. "Now, you may or may not be slightly confused by the current situation, and probably want to ask me why you are here., so to pre-empt these mildly tedious questions I shall supply a succinct and informative answer. You are here because you are not nearly ready to face Voldemort (most of the tables occupants shuddered at the name, all except Harry, Dumbledore and the mysterious Stryker) and yet, the time when you may need to do so approaches ever faster. No man or woman on this earth either magical or muggle can truly prepare you for the trials ahead, but there is one not of this earth who may be able to do so, and he is sitting in front of you and next to me. I give you Stryker, the elemental."

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Please review, next chapter coming soon (I hope!) 


	5. Chapter 5

Me again. Here's the next chapter, please review!

Flames will be used to supplement my heating bill - go green!

Disclaimer: Anything you recognise is unlikely to be mine, unless I am recovering from amnesia and a gender change. I am not J.K Rowling. Don't sue me!

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Gasps could be heard from Ron, Ginny and Neville as they visibly recoiled. Luna looked serene, Hermione nodded her head, an 'I knew it expression' on her face that Harry and Ron knew so well. Harry on the other hand looked quite puzzled.

Dumbledore sat down with a smile on his face, as Stryker the 'Elemental' stood up.

Harry looked at his friends and was shocked to see that Ron looked more terrified than when they had encountered Aragog.

Ginny looked paler than she had in the chamber of secrets, and Neville looked worse than when Snape had set him six feet of parchment (written in characters no larger than half an inch square, joined neatly with no smudges) on the properties of transmogrification potions, with particular emphasis on small amphibians, while he was breathing down Neville's neck (Neville had spent an entire day in the hospital wing recovering from that one).

With a slight smile upon his face the elemental began to speak softly, but in a way that meant you didn't miss a syllable "to those of you who know of my people, do not fear, I'm not going to hurt you," Harry noticed that no one relaxed even the slightest bit at this sentence.

"For those of you who do not," at this he looked pointedly at Harry "I shall explain."

"I am one of a race known as the elementals; we are older than time, we have existed from before the beginning and will exist after the end. We live in a universe parallel to this one where we have unequalled power. In the olden days we would frequently visit other dimensions, such as your own, and interfere with reality in a dangerous way. Our presence in our true forms causes reality to tear, causing both natural and magical disasters all over the world. Few of us cared for the races we were destroying in our selfish arrogance, until the greatest of our people met a young girl who asked him to stop killing her family and go away to let them die in peace. When asked what she meant, he discovered an illness sweeping their world killing all that it encountered. Horrified by the harshness of mortal life he took pity on the girl, and all the dimensions our people had devastated, and gave up his life to restore all to how it had once been. His loss was felt by all our people, so to ensure that it never happened again we created a law, to which we all agreed, that we would never manifest ourselves in our true forms on other worlds. Yet we still interfered. In our physical forms we were more susceptible to emotion and so, in conflict, took sides. This caused even more trouble as our power, however restricted, was still vast, making the casualties of our enemies incomparable. It became worse when our battles returned home, and so a new law was formed; we forbade ourselves from taking sides. If any one of us attempted to do so, the others would stop them and their presence in that world would tear it apart. Our problems solved, our lives returned to normal; we continued visiting other worlds in our assumed forms and maintained a neutral stance on all things.

So why am I here talking to you now? I am here for two reasons, one; the members of your kind that you refer to as muggles fascinate me, endlessly inventive they do without magic everyday, they have such potential. And two; in all the worlds I have visited I have never seen such beautiful variation and life. Your world is truly unique. The man calling himself Lord Voldemort (many of the group jerked back at this) is the greatest ever threat to both these things, so to help them I must help you. I have exploited a loophole in our law so that I may help train you, by offering my assistance to both sides, although for some reason Lord Voldemort (a shudder ran down the table) rejected my generous offer. So, I can train you, if you are willing, but I can not fight for you or with you; trust me, the results of such an action do not bear thinking about." Apparently finished he sat down.

To the casual observer it might have looked like someone had created a particularly lifelike waxwork, the tables occupants moved so little.

Harry was shocked, to have so much power but be unable to use it must be so frustrating. No wonder the elemental had been able to do all that weird magic and no wonder his friends had been so scared of him; he was surprised they hadn't run away.

Professor McGonagall (who was seated to the far left) stood up and began to address the shell shocked teens "for the remainder of the summer you shall be staying in Hogwarts where you shall receive training from Stryker.

You will have breakfast at 8am sharp tomorrow in the great hall where you shall receive further information and your training timetable. During your stay you shall refer to the Headmaster and myself as 'Professor'; Stryker has requested that you refer to him informally, by his first name.

While you shall not have house points increased or deducted you will receive homework and, if the situation requires, detention. You will now return to your dormitories; Miss Lovegood you are of course welcome to use the Gryffindor dormitories until term begins, the choice is yours."

McGonagall's eyes fell on Hermione's raised hand and a sigh escaped her lips "yes Miss Granger, you have a question?"

"I was just wondering if we had a reading list or specific text?" Hermione enquired, causing Ron and Harry to exchange irritated looks; trust Hermione to ask for more work.

"I don't know what Stryker has planed but I am certain you will find these things out tomorrow after breakfast. Now off to bed all of you." With this McGonagall pointed her wand at the door, which flew open. Her students who needed no further encouragement, walked quickly towards the exit before breaking into a run the second they were out of sight of 'Stryker'. By the time they reached the portrait hole they were all gasping for air.

Entering the Gryffindor Common Room, Ron threw himself into the comfiest armchair and almost yelled "what were they thinking letting one of 'them' live here, let alone train us? I knew Dumbledore was mad but this is suicide!" Clearly his past fear had become anger.

Curious, Harry asked "what do you mean? He seemed alright to me."

Ron looked daggers at Harry so Ginny took over "Elementals are incredibly dangerous, Harry. There have been loads of incidents in the past when the Elementals interfered and the result was never good for either side. They destroyed armies and cities with their power. Bill once told me about an ancient Egyptian tomb which had a record of a battle in which an Elemental was involved; it was 2,000,000 against 200. One of the 200 was an elemental. The end casualty rate was 2,000,000 to 0, but the victors won a City of rubble."

Harry was shocked, glancing at his friends he saw they were all, even Luna, nodding their heads and looking deathly serious (and in some cases bright scarlet).

Deep in thought, and shock, Harry searched around for a change of subject, so was relived when Neville, who had said nothing since he had arrived, provided one by asking "where's Hermione?"

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Please, somebody, talk to me! Next chapter coming soon... 


	6. Chapter 6

Thanks to the-dreamer4, for such a nice review.

All flames are welcome as I'm a pyromaniac and I like the pretty lights!

Disclaimer: Anything you recognise is unlikely to be mine, unless I am recovering from amnesia and a gender change. I am not J.K Rowling. Don't sue me!

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Watching her friends hurry out of the great hall, Hermione stayed put.

Glaring at her stationary student Minerva McGonagall opened her mouth, probably to say something along the lines of 'did you not hear me Miss Granger? I said bed!' but was cut off by Professor Dumbledore saying "my dear Minerva I recently acquired a wonderful selection of sherbet lemons, would you care to join me in sampling them?"

Professor McGonagall probably would have refused had she been given a chance but just as she opened her mouth to answer she was again cut off by Professor Dumbledore "wonderful Minerva, let us proceed, for if I'm not mistaken Stryker and Miss Granger would like to conduct a fairly personal conversation that they would appreciate us not being a part of," and with that he took hold of her arm and steered her out of the great hall, catching Hermione's eye momentarily and giving her a reassuring smile along with his usual twinkle.

As soon as her teachers had left Hermione turned to the man, or more accurately entity, she reminded herself, and began a conversation she had been preparing for more than half her life.

"Why did you save me?"

It was a simple question, but the answer to which she was dreading.

He didn't answer at first. This made Hermione even more terrified; she felt like she was about to be sick. Then he began to speak and she directed all her attention at him to ensure she didn't miss anything.

"I was nearby, just lounging about in the Amazon rainforest, when I heard you scream. Even at so young an age you could muster the power to reach me. I extended my power to protect you and willed myself to you. The rest you already know."

Hermione was shocked; to call out like that just a small distance took tremendous skill and power, but across continents…? She had expected it to be something like 'I was just passing and happened to see you'.

Interrupting her thoughts Stryker spoke "You were an exceptionally powerful witch even as a child, yet even a gifted child couldn't do what you did. I was intrigued.

I did some research and as far as I can tell muggle born witches, and to a lesser extent wizards, are inherently open minded and all their life build up power and then release it in short bursts.

A combination of these two things allowed you to contact me, although it's still something only one person in every hundred years or so can do."

Impressed at her own ability and quite flattered by the complimentary way in which her childhood hero had told her about it, she blushed.

Trying to force her mind back to the conversation at hand, she asked "why did you do the research?"

A huge smile breaking across his face Stryker chuckled and said "what can I say, I was intrigued."

Reddening still further Hermione asked a question she had been thinking about for some time "are all the stories about you true? I assumed that most of them were lurid fabrications designed as horror stories for children with the Elementals as convenient monsters, but a few seemed primarily extrapolation instead of purely fictitious and had good evidence to support them."

Pondering the question for a few seconds Stryker began his answer "about half of the stories that I've heard have some basis in fact, but they're generally very watered down versions of history with the occasional extrapolated fairy tale in there as well."

Hermione's red face had turned white and she had to resist the urge to be sick; she had read most of the stories about the Elementals and they were horrible, far worse than muggle stories in their scope.

Noticing he was about to continue his answer she paid rapt attention, hoping that he would contradict himself.

"There is a quite well known one about Egypt. It claims there were 200 facing 2,000,000 and that 2,000,000 were killed but that's not what happened. It was one elemental against 20,000,000 and she didn't destroy one city, she turned Egypt into a desert."

Hermione wanted to run away and cry. To hear the man she had been waiting more than half her life to meet again, talk so coldly about the slaughter of 20,000,000 people and smile at the memory of Egypt becoming a desert.

Noticing how violently the girl in front of him was shaking he bowed his head and said in a calm, soothing voice "that's why the law was created, to stop things like that happening again."

Realising that she wasn't calming down at all and was in fact beginning to hyperventilate he tried to take her mind off what he had just told her "you seemed quite interested in my staff earlier, it's rather fascinating actually.

When we materialize in this world our power is severally crippled and we have to concentrate exceptionally hard just to stay in our assumed form. By forming a connection with an object from the world we are in, like a rock for instance, it becomes easier to stay in that world. A living object, like a tree, makes it easier still, but the further we are from the object the more difficult it becomes to maintain our form.

Cutting a staff from a tree we are linked to means we can carry a piece of your world around with us and still be connected to a living thing.

As an added bonus, channelling our power through the staff makes it more precise, more like your world.

When some of us leave your world, we irresponsibly allow the staff we created to remain. If a skilled and powerful witch or wizard finds the staff and the tree it came from they can merge themselves with it. This gives them a fraction of an Elementals power as long as the tree still lives and the staff remains unbroken. When they inevitably die they take the tree and the staff with them which is why staffs are so rare and why no staff is ever reused."

Despite herself, Hermione had thoroughly enjoyed Stryker's explanation of staff's and had calmed down almost completely.

Relived that Hermione had resumed normal breathing once more, Stryker decided to end the conversation on a high note (or at least not a low note) and stood up saying "time for bed I think, and try not to dwell too much on what I have said, it happened a long time ago."

Deciding to get one more question in before she went to the Gryffindor common room and the inevitable assault of questions she said "you said your people felt the loss of the greatest of you, what did you mean?"

As Hermione studied the Elementals face she saw a great sadness in his eyes as he spoke, "each and every Elemental controls one force in the universe, however big or small, it is theirs and theirs alone. I control lightning, he controlled time. His loss was felt when he restored the timeline of every dimension from ours, and in doing so overexerted himself and was ripped apart, even with all of our support.

A part of him still exists in the worlds he saved, but it is not enough, he's still gone.

Because in our world we are all one, his loss weakened us all. The pain that we feel will never go away but it becomes more bearable with time, as is the way with all loss."

Not knowing what to say, Hermione remained silent as she watched a single tear run down his cheek before finally resolving to say something sympathetic. She opened her mouth but he cut her short, his face becoming emotionless once more and his single tear freezing, he said icily "I'll see you at breakfast, goodnight Miss Granger."

As he strode past her into the entrance hall he left a very confused and rather hurt Hermione in the great hall trying to restrain her tears.

Turning round to watch him go she just caught a flash of light and a faint crackling sound.

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Thanks for reading, please review. Next chapter soon!


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